WORKRAVEN WITH THE FATCAT

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„Guinea pigs usually give the best meat.” With this quotation from Pavel Korosin (Czech writer and aphorist), I would like to begin my story, the setting of which is an office room in the new building of the Heidelberg University of Education. If you now have an ordinary office everyday life in mind, I have to modify your imagination. A look into the office room shows the usual: Tables, chairs, cabinets, computers, telephones – what stands out are the employees who cheerfully alternate between sitting and standing at their height-adjustable workstations. Admittedly, this behavior was not ingrained in them and is related to their knowledge of the health risks of permanent sitting… However, you don’t have to be an expert to regularly interrupt long periods of sitting in the office for the sake of your own health. The technological age has brought forth various online and computer programs as well as apps for this purpose, which are intended to encourage more movement in everyday office life.

For this reason, I started a self-experiment and tested the suitability of various programs for sitting time interruption over three weeks.

Fatcat Work-out

The Fatcat Workout is the first of these. This is a free website where you can choose between three different exercise sequences, namely one for hands, shoulders, and head, a classic workout, and the Cat Workout.

The Cat Workout is the most unusual of the three exercise sequences, as a fat and friendly cat takes on the role of your trainer in comic style – fun and action are pre-programmed! Since the exercises include push-ups, sit-ups, and squats, a certain degree of athleticism is recommended. Also, be sure to wear comfortable clothing and footwear, and also make sure to have enough room for your arms and legs. The reason I write this is because I make the mistake of trying the workout in a cramped office including inappropriate clothing. The result is an uncontrolled shifting of furniture coupled with a hasty tugging of my clothes. I’m having a lot of fun, anyway.

For employees in formal attire or those for whom exercise in the office is simply too wild, the exercise sequence for hands, shoulders, and the head is suitable. It contains discrete exercises that can be performed regardless of clothing and space. Nevertheless, you don’t have to do without animations of the fat and sympathetic cat, as it takes over the helm during the breaks.

To Fatcat Workout:

Rise and recharge

The Rise and recharge app documents movement behavior throughout the day. An accelerometer, which is built into many cell phones, is used for this purpose. What’s particularly motivating here is that you earn points with every unit of movement (from 15 steps per half hour) and thus have a kind of diary of your sitting breaks, provided you wear the cell phone on your body.

Another function is the reminder for sitting breaks, the frequency of which can be set individually.

My conclusion: If you spend a little time with the app and set the break reminders sensibly, it is definitely helpful so that you move often enough even on stressful days.

To Rise and recharge: https://www.riserecharge.com

Workrave

Workrave is a computer program for Windows that makes break reminders appear on the computer screen. Depending on your wishes, you can also do small exercises for your eyes and arms. My enthusiasm lasts only briefly, however, as the program decides to remind me to take breaks every two minutes. After numerous interruptions and a build-up of frustration, I finally delete it from my computer. Unfortunately, the time intervals between breaks cannot be changed. Too bad!

To Workrave:

Pomodoro

Pomodoro is available as an app, homepage, and PC software. The principle is quickly explained: After 25 minutes of concentrated work, the program reminds you to take a five-minute break. This can then be used, for example, to get up, move around or go to the toilet. I decide to walk from the fourth floor to the first floor and back again during each break. Staying athletic is definitely possible with this program!

To Pomodoro:

Drinking alarm clock

A drinking alarm clock? You’re probably wondering what this has to do with standing at work. As the name suggests, this app is meant to remind you to drink regularly. I take advantage of this idea and set my water glass down a generous distance from my desk. As soon as the alarm sounds, I get up, pour myself a glass of water, and drink it while walking a few steps. So I can kill two birds with one stone, as I drink more and sit less at the same time. More frequent walks to the bathroom on the third floor are even free on top!

To the drinking alarm clock -App (Google Play):

Break Taker

Fortunately, I am not the only guinea pig in the stable. Nadine, who is responsible for the sub-project Antiziganism Prevention in the TRANSFER TOGETHER family, has also tested some apps and computer programs. What Nadine thinks about the Windows program “Break Taker”, she tells in the interview.

Hi Nadine, glad you agreed to test “Break Taker” in the office. Tell us how you’re doing with it so far.

I have set the pause reminder with a time interval of 20 minutes. I find that quite practical because 20 minutes roughly corresponds to my attention span. I usually get something to drink then. If I am very concentrated and don’t want to be interrupted, I press “No thanks”. That works, too. The app then reminds you about 10 minutes later, flashing red, to take a break. The more often you press the reminder away, the more often the popups appear on the screen.

In addition to the break reminder, sayings like “Look out the window! What’s the weather like today?” appear on the computer screen. I actually find this quite nice and don’t perceive it as a command.

Time to stretch your legs!

How do regular reminders to stop sitting feel to you?

I have found that I am on the road a lot anyway. For example, to the printer, to colleagues, and so on. But I also found the reminder just good, in case you sometimes don’t remember to move.

What I don’t like as much is that you can’t simply turn off the interruptions. The other day I had a lecture at the Society for Antiziganism Research, and then the break reminder popped up with the note “Time to stretch your legs!”. This, of course, caused a huge laugh. At the same time, it was a good fit because I was about to introduce TRANSFER TOGETHER anyway. Maybe you can pause the program, but so far I haven’t figured out how to do that. I just installed it and used it intuitively without much thought.

Would you say that the app has changed something for you?

It’s hard to say. I move around a lot in my day-to-day work anyway and was on the road a lot during the test phase. It remains to be seen whether the app can bring about further changes. I will continue to use it, at least for now.

Thank you, Nadine!

To BreakTaker:

My conclusion

I find that the apps and programs can be quite a good aid to introduce the sit-stand movement dynamic. Whether the sitting breaks are initiated by gymnastics or drinking tea is a matter of taste and is up to everyone.

The regular interruption of sitting every 20 minutes has done me good. I have noticed that I feel better and have more motivation for work tasks that need to be done. At the end of the day, I am less exhausted and generally feel more energetic. The positive experiences make me optimistic about maintaining this.